Dan Stevens wants Downton Abbey corset

Bang
2 August 2011 15:30 BST

Dan Stevens wishes he could wear a corset in 'Downton Abbey'.

The actor - who plays Matthew Crawley in the ITV1 period drama - explained shooting scenes where his character is involved in fighting during World War One aggravated an old back injury, but the whalebone corsets worn by women at the time would have been the perfect support for his injury.

He told BANG Showbiz: "I really knackered my back. They did get the smallest lightest man for me to carry across no man's land, but I had to do it so many times. So picking him up and throwing him down over and over again didn't do wonders for my already pretty weak spine.

"They had a physiotherapist come out on set so it's getting better. I should have had a corset like the women have, the whalebone support would have been great for my back."

While series two of 'Downton' sees Dan's alter-ego life turned "upside down" with the onset of World War One, he jumped at the chance to spend a week shooting action scenes in the trenches.

He said: "He's involved in the great war from the get go, for Matthew life is turned upside down all over again.

"We were intensively outdoors all day every day with no chance of going inside, it was tough but it was an amazing week. There were explosions going off everywhere, tremendous amount of extras just throwing themselves into it and a very realistic depiction of British and German trenches.

"I was thrilled to open the script and see 'Matthew in a crater page one', this is a bit different from tea with the Dowager."

The second series of 'Downton Abbey' will air on ITV1 later this year.

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